Comment registration is now open! Update: Closed

posted at 12:00 pm on February 6, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

As of now, the books are open at Hot Air! Those who want to add their voices to our comment sections can now register to join our community. We’ll keep it open until 4 pm ET today. First read our Terms of Service, and if you agree, register through this link and follow the steps.

Here are a few things to keep in mind. When you register, we will e-mail you a password. It may take a while (anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour or so, depending on the traffic this open registration creates) to get your e-mail, but it will come to you from “mail-at-hotair-dot-com.” Please check your spam and junk folders if you do not get the e-mail in a reasonable time, as it is almost certainly there if not in your inbox. At that point, you can comment, but we have to approve your first comment from moderation before you can post any others. That will take us some time to do, so don’t start shooting us e-mails about how your comment didn’t appear.

If you do not see the message, please e-mail us at “tips-at-hotair-dot-com” from the e-mail account you used to register so we can find your account, and we’ll try resending you the password. Please do not ping us on Twitter, as we can’t help you from that platform.

Also, please note that if you have been banned before, you will not be approved for commenting now. We are not going to re-litigate prior violations. Don’t bother writing e-mails detailing how much you’ve changed in the intervening time. We are focusing on adding fresh voices today, and don’t have the time to waste arguing over long-settled complaints, nor the inclination to do so.

One final note, to both newbies and veterans: the best way to prevent trolls from disrupting threads is to ignore them. Do not get into name-calling exchanges, because that’s exactly what they want to happen – to make the entire thread about them rather than the topic, and to get you in position to get banned as well. Do not take thebait. If you see a problem, drop us a note on the tips line, but please be sure it’s trolling and not just reasonable disagreement or tit-for-tat ad hominems.

Here are a few other points from earlier open registration days:

I’ve registered but not yet logged in. Can I do so now?

Yes. Everyone who had not yet logged in should have received a password reset mail that will allow them to log into the system and comment on our site. If you have not received it, please check your spam folder, as many of those who didn’t see the e-mail ended up finding it there; it came from “mail-at-hotair-dot-com”. However, if you still don’t see it, you can just click on this link to generate a new reset e-mail. Don’t do this if you’ve already successfully logged into the system.

Why is your registration policy so restrictive? Why not just have open enrollment all of the time?

While we have a big disclaimer on our comment threads, we do like to maintain some decorum there. The only people available to police the comment sections are myself, Erika,, MK, and Allahpundit, which we have to do while still doing all of the writing that takes place at Hot Air. If we had open registration all of the time, we’d have a lot less time to write, or we’d have to just let the comments sections go wild with trolling and other issues.

Why did you only have registrationopen during business hours? Some of us aren’t able to use the Internet at that time for various reasons.

Well, if the problems we experienced on earlier attempts didn’t convince you of the wisdom of doing this when support staff was available, nothing will. It’s handled that way to have a maximum of manpower on duty when it’s most needed for this work.

What if I have read Hot Air every day for years and yet somehow missed the open registration window that was active for seven hours, er … again?

We plan on having another one in the near future.

I changed my mind about my user name and now want to go by “Hot Gas.”

Stand in line; we got about a dozen of these requests already, and even we thought about changing our name. Seriously, though, the username is the key field in the database and cannot be edited. If you made a typo when entering it, we can’t change it now.

Nuke MM. USS Bainbridge DLG(N)25. That hull number will give you a clue about how old I am. Got out after my 6. Worked in civilian power plants both conventional (coal fired) and nuclear. I retired from Dominion Virginia Power’s North Anna plant in Y2K. Most of my time there was in operations as a shift supervisor/manager. By the way I had trouble with math in nuke school too.

I will try to present my real world view of liberal thought and some behind the scenes reasons why Dems do what we do! Look forward to having fun with you guys and please overlook my spelling. Chuckle!

Sums up my feelings on politics after the past four or five years. I’ve pretty well had my hope knocked clean out of me, yet here I am anyway. I guess because it’ll be fun drinkin’ whiskey and rye with the good ol’ boys.

So how many folks are still around from the original registration way back in the day? I believe that I am in that group, just curious.

gator70 on February 6, 2014 at 9:27 AM

I’m not sure if I qualify for membership in that group. I actually made a special email request of AP early on. I can’t remember if I missed an open registration, or if it was simply an ad hoc process at that point. I remember his response to my nick request, though: “Just so long as you aren’t advocating nuking the Middle East, we’re good.”

Hi y’all.
I don’t say too much, but when I do I am sure it will be ignored. So there’s that.
Also, I just adore argyle socks. So when picking your socks, if some of you would comply, that would be great.

It’s good I read Hot Air almost daily for years and years. I didn’t miss the sign up window this time. I don’t recall ever seeing a window before. It does allow Ed and co to actually write verses herd cats. It isn’t the sign up that is hard on them it is the moderation, the spambots, and so much else. It is their site and we are guests.

And, do not…expect a reasonable discussion with a poster named verbaluce.

kingsjester on February 6, 2014 at 9:18 AM

Ha, the irony.
Welcome all.
I heart reasonable discussions and disagreement.
I bore/annoy KJ cause I’m not that into the name calling or the ‘tit-for-tat ad hominems'(as Ed calls it).
Sometimes it’s hard not to respond in kind to some of the more, um, animated regulars. But for other non-right cons like myself – you’ll also find intelligent and respectful disagreements and debates along with the ‘you Obama cultist!’ lines. But go to Kos if you want back pats and high fives.
(And also expect some taking scatological liberties with your username.)
It’s good hang here…with lots of fine folks.

Thanks for opening registration. I’ve been reading Hot Air since 2012. Used to comment on the headlines threads when you could Facebook comment there, and was encouraged by regulars to sign up when open registration came around. So here I am. :) I probably won’t post much, as I’m more of a lurker, but I appreciate having the opportunity.

Ha, the irony.
Welcome all.
I heart reasonable discussions and disagreement.
I bore/annoy KJ cause I’m not that into the name calling or the ‘tit-for-tat ad hominems’(as Ed calls it).
Sometimes it’s hard not to respond in kind to some of the more, um, animated regulars. But for other non-right cons like myself – you’ll also find intelligent and respectful disagreements and debates along with the ‘you Obama cultist!’ lines. But go to Kos if you want back pats and high fives.
(And also expect some taking scatological liberties with your username.)
It’s good hang here…with lots of fine folks.